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In an effort to bring research to the public, Queen’s University is once again encouraging participation in the Research Matters Virtual Scavenger Hunt. Hosted by the Council of Ontario Universities, the scavenger hunt targets the public and students to raise their interest in scientific research at the university level.

The Virtual Scavenger Hunt starts today and each weekday until Friday, February 27 new clues will be released on the website. Each clue’s answer is just one or two words and relates to a university research project happening somewhere in Ontario.

This year the Queen’s research clue will be presented by Chloe Hudson, a master’s candidate in clinical psychology on Thursday, February 19.

“I absolutely love research,” says Ms. Hudson, who is acting as the Queen’s Student Ambassador for the campaign. “I’m a curious person by nature, and I love the process of going from having a question to trying to figure out the answer, and then sharing what you find with a larger audience. I'm hoping that this campaign will get more people as excited about research as I am.”

 “I think the scavenger hunt will get people thinking about different research findings,” says Ms. Hudson. “Hopefully it will get students exploring areas outside of their expertise. This is so important, as we often get wrapped up in our own area and we’re ‘too busy’ to look into other things. It makes us better colleagues to know about other people's research, and it can even contribute to our own research by allowing us to look at our own findings with a new lens.

Ms. Hudson’s own work looks at the relationship between victimization (e.g., being bullied) and depressive symptoms in adolescents. This relationship is well established in previous literature, but of course, not all children who are bullied go on to experience depression.

The contest starts today and in order to be entered for the grand prize draw, participants must register and correctly answer each of the scavenger hunt’s questions in an online grid. If the grid is completed correctly, a hidden message will emerge. There are five grand prizes of $500 available to student participants and 21 Research Matters gift bags available to anyone who enters.